Brumation/Beard Coloring!

[newreptile]

Hey All!

My little man Norton is slightly over a year old now (I believe his birthday is sometime around December?), and I am thinking he is having his first go round at brumation! He hasn't eaten very much in the past two and a half weeks, and has spent all day yesterday and today curled in his hide sleeping. He's at a healthy weight, all his lights and temps are as they should be for him. The last thing he had eaten was MAYBE a small bite of squash and a moistened pellet or two about three days ago- would that be enough to register a full bowel movement for him? He hasn't naturally gone yet, however I know it is not good to let them sleep such long periods of time with food in their stomachs; I'm just not sure if those bites of food are enough to warrant concern as far as him sleeping? I've read that weekly soaking is usually a good schedule for during their brumation, I just didn't want to panic if a bath and belly rub didn't warrant a movement after those last few bites!

Also off topic, does anyone have beardies that have darker coloring on their beards naturally closer to their shoulders? The main area of his beard is his lighter yellow with bright flecks of orange, and then almost the far right and far left bottom corners of his beard have been dark purple/blue.

 

[CooperDragon]

It's good that his weight is stable. It's important to monitor that as his weight should remain fairly stable during slowdowns. Have you changed his lighting schedule? It's good to offer him water now and then. I wouldn't worry too much about a little bit of food but if he's sleeping I wouldn't offer him much. Maybe put a salad in the tank in case he wants it. This is a good general article on brumation https://www.beardeddragon.org/articles/brumation/

The coloring sounds OK. Their beards are all a little bit different and as long as he has some nice bright colors and it isn't fully dark all the time I don't think it's anything to worry about.

 

[newreptile]

It's good that his weight is stable. It's important to monitor that as his weight should remain fairly stable during slowdowns. Have you changed his lighting schedule? It's good to offer him water now and then. I wouldn't worry too much about a little bit of food but if he's sleeping I wouldn't offer him much. Maybe put a salad in the tank in case he wants it. This is a good general article on brumation https://www.beardeddragon.org/articles/brumation/

The coloring sounds OK. Their beards are all a little bit different and as long as he has some nice bright colors and it isn't fully dark all the time I don't think it's anything to worry about.

I haven't touched his lights at all, sometimes he'll sleep a day or two and then come back out so I'm not sure if he's going to fully go down this time, I don't want to alter anything yet just in case!

 

[CooperDragon]

I would keep everything the same. They go into various levels of slowdown so he might not go to sleep for extended periods but may move about less and eat less for a while.